Religious Extremism and Youth Restiveness in Kaduna State: Issues and Prospects

This paper gives details of how religious extremism and youth restiveness intensify violent conflict in Kaduna state and beyond. The paper investigates how radical Christianity and Islamism destabilize the Nigerian states and challenge its secularity. It also examines the impact of religion extremist on youth restiveness in Kaduna state, issues and way forward. Data for this paper were drawn from both primary and secondary source, mainly from group discussion and the library. Historical-descriptive were also analyze via content analysis. Rawls theory of justice which was utilized is predicated on the notion that a good and peaceful society is characterized by a number of virtues. Justice is the first virtue of a good and peaceful society. The paper reveals that religion extremist and youth restiveness are caused by clash of different belief system, ignorance, illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, and unhealthy communication among others. These issues creates avenue for vulnerability among the warring parties. The paper recommends among others the need for religion as agent of socialization and means of social cohesion and bond to bring about moral community in Kaduna state in particular and in Nigeria at large

Real-Time Nowcasting of Short-Run of the Euro-Dollar Exchange Rate with Economic Fundamentals: Does the measure of Money Supply Matter?

This paper proposes a fundamental-monetary-based econometric model with mixed frequency data to now caste the Euro-Dollar short run exchange rate. We use the exact amount of information that are available to researchers or police makers at the time of prediction of exchange rate. The spot exchange rate information are available at week basis while other macroeconomic data like money supply, in action, industrial production, and interest rate are available at monthly basis. Since the monetary model consists of stable money demand functions (Bianco, 2012), not all the measure of money supply guaranties a stable money demand. Barnett (1978, 1980) has proven that the measure of money supply (simple sum) that central banks published monthly does not provide a stable money demand. Only, the Divisia monetary aggregates provide a stable money demand at any level of aggregation. This paper proposes a multivariate state space model that takes into account not only the asynchronous information inflow, but also the instability of the money demand to predict four weeks spot exchange rate. We obtain great improvement of the model proposed by Bianco (2012) with Divisia monetary aggregates as measure of money supply. The latter performs much better at all forecasting horizons (one, two, three, and four weeks) than all of others models that predict the spot exchange rate with Significant improvements. We estimate our model (dynamic factor model) with the procedure proposed by Barnett et al (2016)

Skin disorders at sea

The purpose of this study is to characterize the types of skin disorders occurring at sea requiring acute treatment. The case logs of a tele-medicine service for US flagged ships at sea were reviewed from March 1, 2006 until March 1, 2009. Of 1844 total cases, 10% (n = 183) were for skin disorders. Sixty-eight percent (n = 125) were infections, 14% (n = 25) were inflammatory, 7% (n = 13) were environmental, and 11% (n = 20) were non-specific rashes. Cutaneous abscesses and cellulitis (n = 84) were the most common acute skin disorders encountered. In some cases (n = 81), still digital photographs aided in the diagnosis. Int Marit Health 2010; 61, 1: 9-1

Tackling user-centric media demands through adaptable software defined infrastructures

This paper proposes a conceptual approach to content delivery that addresses emerging media demand trends through cross-layer integration between Virtualised Service Networks (VSNs) and Information Centric Networking (ICN). The transformative effects of software-defined infrastructures are presented and how these technologies can support dynamics needed to deliver personalised, interactive, mobile, and localised media content to consumer

Clash of Identities and Ethno-Religious Conflict in Kaduna State Nigeria

Over time Clash of Identities in Kaduna North-west Nigeria often manifest into ethno-religious conflict in the state. This paper examines however the nexus between politics, ethno-religious and sharp identity question that formed the basis of ethno-religious conflict in the area. These however, affect sustainable development in Kaduna state. Historically, this conflict has played itself out in the contest for space, resources and access to power between different communities in the state; it also accesses how state failure and elite competition for power and resources in a multi-ethnic nation causes ethno-religious conflict and sharp identity question in Kaduna state. The paper adopts Human Needs theory. This theory explicates the reason to meet basic needs of man and if these needs are not met, conflict is likely to occur. The paper also adopts qualitative methods of data collection; this is drawn from both primary and secondary sources of data. It utilizes instrument of in-depth interviews with the key actors, community leaders and religious leaders. It is the finding of the paper that politics of identity and ethno-religious conflict have been the fundamental issue that poses security challenges to Nigeria. These challenges have taken the form of bombing, injury; killing and kidnapping that threatened Nigeria national security. The study recommends that government; ethno-regional and religious groups should adopt preventive diplomacy and dialogue to attaining cohesion and symbiotic relationship

Enhancing marine industry risk management through semantic reconciliation of underwater IoT data streams

The “Rio+20” United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) focused on the "Green economy" as the main concept to fight poverty and achieve a sustainable way to feed the planet. For coastal countries, this concept translates into "Blue economy", the sustainable exploitation of marine environments to fulfill humanity needs for resources, energy, and food. This puts a stress on marine industries to better articulate their processes to gain and share knowledge of different marine habitats, and to reevaluate the data value chains established in the past and to support a data fueled market that is going only to in the near future.The EXPOSURES project is working in conjunction with the SUNRISE project to establish a new marine information ecosystem and demonstrate how the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) can be exploited for marine applications. In particular EXPOSURES engaged with the community of stakeholders in order to identify a new data value chain which includes IoT data providers, data analysts, and harbor authorities. Moreover we integrated the key technological assets that couple OGC standards for raster data management and manipulation and semantic technologies to better manage data assets.This paper presents the identified data value chain along with the use cases for validating it, and the system developed to semantically reconcile and manage such data collections

Extrinsic Factors Influencing the Person’s Motivation for Engagement and Retention in the Addiction Recovery Process. A Systematic Literature Review

Background Globally, up to 80% of patients enrolled for addiction care are lost to follow-up within the first three months of treatment. This review synthesizes evidence on extrinsic factors that influence motivation for engaging in addiction recovery and corresponding empirical definitions. Methods A systematic search for peer-reviewed articles was conducted through electronic databases, including Ovid MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINHAL, and scanning references. The included articles were published in English or French between 1946 and 2018. Results The identified sixteen articles indicated that extrinsic factors for the person’s engagement and retention in the addiction recovery process included: motivation-enhancing healthcare structures, therapeutic relationships, and supportive social networks. Results also indicated that empirical definitions of motivation for engagement and retention in the addiction recovery process varied across studies. Conclusion Extrinsic factors can influence the person’s motivation for engagement and retention in the addiction recovery. Research with full operational definitions of motivation for engagement and retention in the addiction recovery is needed. Keywords: Addiction recovery; engagement; extrinsic factors; motivation; retentio

Molecular Analysis of the Autosomal Dominant Spastic Paraplegia Type IV (SPG4)

Reine hereditäre spastische Paraplegie (pHSP) bezeichnet eine Gruppe von relativ gutartigen neurodegenerativen Erkrankungen des Rückenmarks. Das hervorstechende klinische Symptom ist eine langsam fortschreitende Gang-Anomalität, die durch eine Spastik der Beine begründet ist. Autosomal dominante hereditäre spastische Paraplegien (ADHSP) sind die Hauptformen von pHSP und sind genetisch heterogen. Als Genorte für die reine ADHSP wurden die Chromosomen 2 (SPG4 auf 2p 21-24, SPG13 auf 2q24-34), 8 (SPG8 auf 8q23-24), 12 (SPG10 auf 12p13), 14 (SPG3 auf 14q11.2-q24.3), 15 (SPG6 auf 15q11.1), und 19 (SPG12 auf 19q13) identifiziert. Bis zum heutigen Tag wurde allein das in SPG4-Patienten mutierte SPAST-Gen kloniert und analysiert. Die Ziele dieser Dissertation sind: (1) Bestimmung des Krankheitslocus einer großen Familie mit reiner ADHSP; (2) Erstellung einer physikalischen Karte der Kandidaten-Gen-Region, um Kandidaten-Gene untersuchen zu können; (3) Untersuchung, ob CAG-Repeat-Expansionen für die Krankheitsentwicklung verantwortlich sind und (4) Suche nach neuen Mutationen im SPAST-Gen.Pure hereditary spastic paraplegias (pHSP) are relatively mild neurodegenerative disorders of the spinal cord. The predominant clinical sign is a slowly progressive gait anomaly due to spasticity of the legs. Age of onset is usually during adulthood, but varies greatly both within and between families. Autosomal dominant hereditary spastic paraplegia (ADHSP) are the major forms of pHSP and are genetically heterogeneous. The disease loci of pure ADHSP have been assigned to chromosomes 2 (SPG4 in 2p 21-24, SPG13 in 2q24-34), 8 (SPG8 in 8q23-24), 12 (SPG10 in 12p13), 14 (SPG3 in 14q11.2-q24.3), 15 (SPG6 in 15q11.1), and 19 (SPG12 in 19q13). To date, the SPG4 gene SPAST has been identified. This dissertation included (1) the determination the disease locus of a large family with pure ADHSP, (2) the construction the physical map of the candidate region as the first step to identify the disease gene, (3) the investigation of whether CAG repeat expansions were involved in the mechanism of disease, and (4) the screenings the mutation of patients with the SPAST gene

Creating opportunities to learn social skills at school using digital games

Acquiring skills for social and emotional well-being is important for inclusive societies and academic achievement. Studies have demonstrated the beneficial link between prosocial behaviours and improved results in curriculum topics. This paper describes a Prosocial Learning (PSL) process for creation and delivery of digital games for children (7-10 yrs) within educational systems that support learning of prosocial skills. The approach combines prosocial pedagogies with advanced ICT technologies and cloud delivery models to create attractive and exciting learning opportunities for children; produce novel digital game-based pedagogies and simplify deployment.Prosociality is a concept that refers to an individual’s propensity towards positive social behaviours. Individuals with prosocial skills are, for example, able to join in conversations, talk nicely, identifying feelings and emotions in themselves and others, identify someone needs help and ask for help. PSL classifies these skills in terms of Friendship, Feelings and Cooperation. By using interactive digital games supported by additional instructive and reflective activities, PSL allows children to learn social skills that can be generalised to real life situations in the classroom, playground and at home.PSL is implemented through a technology platform offering systematic pedagogical support for prosocial games developed by an ecosystem of teachers and games companies. Capabilities include multi-modal sensors to observe emotional affect, game interaction and decision-making. Information is acquired through standard protocols (e.g. xAPI) and evaluated by learning analytics algorithms to provide real-time feedback on player behaviours that are be used for in-game feedback and adaptation, and by teachers to shape follow-up activities. PSL is validated through short and longitudinal studies at European schools to gather evidence for effectiveness. This paper provides early evidence from short studies that will steer larger pan-European trials to test hypotheses, promote to policy makers and to increase adoption of game-based learning in school